Hartlepool school gets £3,000 hi-tech boost in national contest

Stranton Primary School in the town recently won a state-of-the-art education technology package from the Promethean Grant.

The Promethean Grant was a UK-wide initiative where schools were asked to submit creative entries as to why they should receive a Promethean ActivPanel – an advanced interactive display for front of classrooms.

The school has now been chosen as one of the 30 winners from over 250 entries in total following their submission, which even included a short video appeal.

The competition ran during the last school year, and the winners’ new ActivPanels were installed in time for start of the current academic year.

Each school received a fully installed ActivPanel package valued at approximately £3,000.

Year 6 teacher Anthony Emms, was particularly happy about the school’s win as his classroom was chosen to receive the new ActivPanel.

Alex Duxfield, who is ICT technician at the school, said: “Mr Emms is overjoyed to have the panel in his class, he used to have to go to other classrooms every time he wanted to use an interactive panel because his old one was so temperamental.

“The competition was something we had to get involved with, it’s such a great opportunity and the children loved taking part.

“With school budgets being squeezed, it was amazing to win the ActivPanel.”

Alistair Hayward, Promethean’s head of UKI and ANZ markets, said: “The standard of the entries was higher than we ever could have imagined and some tough decisions had to be made when choosing winners.

“As a company we are really pleased that we can ease the financial pressure of 30 schools from across the country and provide next-generation technology for staff and students.

“We firmly believe finances shouldn’t be a barrier to accessing technology which can enhance the teaching and learning experience and that is why we chose to launch the Promethean Grant.”

Stranton Primary has been using its ActivPanel since the start of the school year and the staff were provided with the relevant training as part of the winning package.

As a front of class display, the ActivPanel acts as a collaborative learning centre, and can connect with other devices in the classroom such as laptops and tablets; enabling students to complete tasks from the screen on a handheld device, or even take turns at the front of the classroom using the touchscreen functionality.